My partners grandson is now 7 months old & as he is the first grandchild in the family, my partner is spoiling him rotten at the moment. When our own son was younger, we purchased him the ELC Activity Pool and he loved it & so my partner was really pleased to find that they still sell it & so he has recently purchased one for his grandson to use during the forthcoming Summer months.

The ELC activity pool is a small, inflatable pool for babies which has a blue base which is like the sea and an inflatable palm tree top which acts as a sun shield which is essential for babies and toddlers. The pool is quite small and therefore easy to blow up. My partner did it on his own manually and didn't need a pump to blow it up and it was fully inflated within 10 minutes.

This is quite a versatile little pool as it can be used as a baby's first paddling pool or as a little ball pit. My partner purchased a couple of bags of the larger plastic balls from ELC to accompany this pool and the two bags provided more than enough balls to fill the pool.

My partner purchased it when we had those couple of nice weeks during March so it was first used as a paddling pool. The specified age range for this pool is 9 months to 2 years, though it is completely suitable for his grandson who as said, is only 7 months old. The pool area itself has really high sides which keep him upright in the pool and he is perfectly capable of sitting up on his own so it left me free to play and splash with him. We didn't fill it up too much, and the obvious safety precaution of never leaving a small child unattended in water applies, but provided you use common sense, this pool is really fun as a baby's first pool.

The actual pool feels really sturdy and well-made and the plastic feels thick and of a high quality which is what you want when it comes to young children. Attached around the palm tree stumps are three inflatable rings which children will enjoy playing with too though our grandson does struggle a bit with these and his balance at his age so I think these are only really suitable for older babies/young toddlers to play with.

The price of this pool is just £16.00 from ELC which I think is excellent value for money as you can get a lot of use out of it. As the weather has took a turn for the worse over the last couple of weeks, we have simply emptied the pool, moved it inside and it is now a ball pit. The pool is only really sized to have one small child in it, though you could probably sit two babies in it at a push but due to the sunshade, there is no way an older child or adult could get in it so you have to play from the outside.

Our grandson visits regularly and was starting to get a little bored with having nothing in the house that he could play with so this pool has been a godsend to us and its versatility means that he can play in it whatever the weather and he really loves it. Although he is supervised at all times, it is great knowing he has something fun to play in at our house that is safe and fun for him.

The only real problem is storage. It isn't the kind of toy that you want to keep inflating and deflating every time he visits so we leave it inflated. Although it is only a smallish pool, it still takes up some room to store. We are lucky to have a spare room in our home and this is where we store it but if you are not so lucky to have a decent space to store it, you may find yourself deflating it regularly which is a little bit of a pain.

Overall, this baby activity pit comes with a high recommendation from me. The grandson loves it, it can be used in all weathers and I think it is excellent value for money. It is well made, sturdy and safe and has already provided the grandson with a good few hours of fun play and I can see it being used regularly over the forthcoming Summer months so we will certainly get our moneys worth out of it.

This pool is exclusive to ELC stores and seeing the smile it puts on the grandsons face, it has to come with a high recommendation from me.